Commercial Building at the Southeast Corner of Market and Wayne Streets

This picture of the Bing’s Furniture Store at 202 East Market Street was taken by Helen Hansen in 1983. At that time the building recently had a face-lift which included the addition of shutters over the upper level windows, and sandblasting of the exterior brick. This commercial building was built by Sandusky contractor George W. Doerzbach in the Spring of 1894. It originally was a one hundred foot square brick structure. An article in the Sandusky Register of March 30, 1894 reported that the foundations of the building were blasted out of the stone bedrock. The stone that was blasted was then used in the basement and the first floor. Klotz and Kromer provided the engines that drove the elevator. A tin roof was put in by J. Mertz and Son, and the interior painting was done by Holland and Tebbutt. Total cost was $40,000 (about $1.2 million today). 

Here is an illustration from the Sandusky Register which depicts the building as it originally appeared:

 From the Sandusky Register, Mar. 30, 1894

The basement was leased to Engels and Krudwig, who pressed 400 tons of grapes in the fall of 1893, while the construction was still ongoing. In April of 1894, the J.L. Hudson Store opened at this location, after having previously done business in the Hubbard Block. The J.L. Hudson Company, which had its headquarters in Detroit, claimed that their store was the largest and finest in Erie County.

The April 9, 1894 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that at Hudson's grand opening, Professor Theodore Taubert’s orchestra provided musical entertainment, and potted plants and ferns decorated the store. Mr. J.L. Hudson himself arrived from Detroit to be present at the opening of his store’s newest location. The store sold men’s clothing and hats, women’s apparel and dry goods. J.P. Hicks was the manager. Mr. Hudson died on July 5, 1912, and soon after, in the summer of 1913, articles in the Sandusky Register announced that the Sandusky store would soon be closing. 

For a short time, John J. Healy operated a retail store at the site of the former J.L. Hudson store. Jacob H. Herman sold furniture and carpets here for many years, until the Bing Furniture moved in to this site in the 1940s. Since 1987, Value City Furniture has been in business at the southeast corner of Market and Wayne Streets in Sandusky. 

*In January 2025, Value City announced it was going out of business. The future of the building is presently unknown.

Odd Fellows’ Festival in 1856

On March 25, 1856 the Odd Fellows’ Festival was held at West’s Hall in the West House in downtown Sandusky. The floor managers were John Youngs, Warren Smith, and Jerome Monroe. Twelve Sandusky men served on the Committee of Arrangements, including John W. Holland, a well-known local sign painter and businessman.

Clock’s Band provided music for the evening’s entertainment. Rev. Samuel Marks addressed the Daughters of Rebekah, the women lodge members, who attended the festival in full regalia. An article in the March 26, 1856 issue of the Sandusky Daily Commercial Register reported that the Odd Fellows’ Festival was “one of the most brilliant and admirably conducted entertainments ever given in Sandusky.” After Rev. Marks’ address, the crowd enjoyed a dance and music. Several amateurs sang throughout the evening. Dinner was served at eleven o’clock p.m. One hundred seventy people attended the banquet, which featured three tables “loaded down with all the luxuries and substantials the most craving appetite could demand.” The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization. The I.O.O.F. symbol features a three link chain, which represents Friendship, Love and Truth. The I.O.O.F. building in Sandusky was dedicated on March 18, 1890. Several attorneys and businesses are now located in the I.O.O. F. building on Washington Row in downtown Sandusky.

1938 Map of Sandusky created by Sandusky High School Art Students

Miss Marian Yocum's art students at Sandusky High School created a map of Sandusky in 1938. The student artists were: Warren Diebold, Velma Giusti, Mary Hazen, Anita Holland, Allen Kubach, Betty Kneisel, Martha Luscombe, Richard Morey, June Zeiher, George Neese, Richard Oswald, Jean Perry, Marilyn Renner, Yvonne Shimansky, John Shaw, Betty Till, and Joyce White.

In the Sandusky Bay portion of the map, students created drawings of fishermen, swimmers, and boats, including the G.A. Boeckling, which ferried hundreds of tourists to Cedar Point during the summer months. In 1938 the Erie County Fairgrounds and dog pound were located off Perkins Avenue, between Putnam and Camp Streets. The Catholic Cemeteries now known as St. Joseph and St. Mary's Cemeteries were called the Irish Catholic and German Catholic Cemeteries. Otto's Ice Cream was located at 2434 West Monroe Street. (In later years, Toft's sold ice cream at this location.) Businesses which employed many of our grandparents can be seen on the map, including Lyman Boats, Farrell Cheek, Esmond Dairy, Holland-Rieger (later known as Apex), Brightman Nut, Hinde and Dauch.

A drawing of a truck on which the letters CCC and an arrow appear, represented the freight business Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati Highway Inc., on 1231 First Street. Maschari Brothers features a man with a fruit cart saying "Nicea de Banan" to let customers know that the bananas were fresh. The coal docks on the west side of Sandusky were associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad at this time. Bicycles, trains, trucks, cars, and campers are all found on the map. Directional signs show the way to Bay Bridge, the Blue Hole, and Cedar Point. Viewing the student map is like stepping back in time.

Allen Kubach went on to become an artist and an art instructor. Mr. Kubach taught drawing and painting at Kansas State in the 1940’s and taught and lectured at Northwestern University. Paintings by Allen Kubach can be seen at The Painting Affiliates of the Art Center of Northern New Jersey.

Visit the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library to view the map created by Miss Yocum’s art students.

Bay City Guards

. . . No, not the Scottish pop band from the 1970s (that was the Bay City Rollers). . . .

The Bay City Guards were a volunteer infantry militia formed in Sandusky in the mid-nineteenth century. Led by a Sandusky physician, Captain R.R. McMeens, the Guards were organized in the Fall of 1851, with 62 men serving as original members. A retrospective article about the Bay City Guards in the July 23, 1875 Sandusky Register stated that the members of the guard were all native-born American citizens; the Sandusky Yager Rifle Company, another militia formed at about the same time, consisted exclusively of German-born American citizens. Also operating at that time was a company called the Sandusky Artillery. It is not clear exactly when these militias disbanded, but the same Register article mentioned above noted that the Yager Company was the only group still in existence at the outbreak of the Civil War.

The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center holds a "petit ledger" that was opened on March 13, 1854 to record financial transactions for each member (the last transaction looks to have been in 1857). It appears that the men paid dues, from which they received payments for expenses. The page shown above records the transactions of John Holland, who was a sign painter by profession, and who was the last surviving member of the Bay City Guards before his death in 1924 at age 99. Here is his photograph from the W.A. Bishop portrait collection, circa 1900.


Now that you have seen the preserved records of a military veteran, why not help to record and preserve the history of our veterans today? The Veterans History Project needs your help. This project, sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted locally by the Sandusky Library and the Ohio Veterans Home, seeks to record the stories of living veterans through oral history. We need your help, to interview veterans and record their stories for future generations. It's not difficult -- and will even be fun and rewarding! You can record your conversations with veterans on your own, or you can make arrangements to use the facilities provided at the Ohio Veterans Home. Your contribution will help to preserve the stories of our veterans for future generations. For more information, contact the Sandusky Library or the Ohio Veterans Home.